Mutually independent hamiltonian cycles for the pancake graphs and the star graphs

A hamiltonian cycle C of a graph G is an ordered set u₁,u₂,…,u_n(G),u₁ of vertices such that u_i≠u_j for i≠j and u_i is adjacent to u_i+1 for every i{1,2,…,n(G)−1} and u_n(G) is adjacent to u₁, where n(G) is the order of G. The vertex u₁ is the starting vertex and u_i is the ith vertex of C. Two hamiltonian cycles C₁=u₁,u₂,…,u_n(G),u₁ and C₂=v₁,v₂,…,v_n(G),v₁ of G are independent if u₁=v₁ and u_i≠v_i for every i{2,3,…,n(G)}. A set of hamiltonian cycles {C₁,C₂,…,C_k} of G is mutually independent if its elements are pairwise independent. The mutually independent hamiltonicity IHC(G) of a graph G is the maximum integer k such that for any vertex u of G there exist k mutually independent hamiltonian cycles of G starting at u.In this paper, the mutually independent hamiltonicity is considered for two families of Cayley graphs, the n-dimensional pancake graphs P_n and the n-dimensional star graphs S_n. It is proven that IHC(P₃)=1, IHC(P_n)=n−1 if n≥4, IHC(S_n)=n−2 if n{3,4} and IHC(S_n)=n−1 if n≥5.